In a deal with the Lincoln County Attorney, a charge of theft was dropped.

Already in the county jail on burglary and theft charges, Churchwell was hit May 7 with the sexual assault charge. At the time of his arraignment in county court Deputy County Attorney Austen Leighty, asking for a $500,000 bond, said that the sexual assault also included violence.

Prosecutors said Churchwell assaulted a girl under age 16 a year ago. A South Dakota agency notified Lincoln County authorities that the girl gave birth to a baby April 13, and the girl said that Churchwell raped her, which caused the pregnancy. A DNA test showed that Churchwell fathered the baby.

Lincoln County District Judge Richard Birch ordered a pre-sentence investigation and set sentencing for Aug. 26.

Churchwell faces a maximum sentence of 50 years.

Churchwell has been in the county jail since February on theft charges and he has been in and out of the Lincoln County Jail several times. Most recently Churchwell was charged with helping steal some car axles and trying to try to sell them at a salvage yard. That charge came just 17 days after he got out of jail after serving 135 days on a previous theft charge, for loading items from a house into a trailer. Neighbors reported it to the police.

In related action, Churchwell’s accomplice in the thefts, Julian Daily, 40, of North Platte, was sentenced Monday by Judge Richard Birch to 1½-3 years in the penitentiary.

Daily previously accepted a plea deal and pled no contest to aiding and abetting a felony. The deal dropped a misdemeanor theft charge.

Birch told Daily he had a 20-year criminal history and been to the pen twice.

“You served a 363-day sentence in the county jail, got out and within one month committed this crime,” Birch said, “You need to understand that you are pushing this to the point that the county attorney will be seeking a habitual criminal charge.”

Daily was in the pen from June 1994 to August 1995 for theft and again from May 1996 to April 1999 for burglary.